1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
The present invention relates to the recovery of nitroamines form surplus energetic materials, and their reformulation into useful products.
2. Background Art
The U.S. military has stockpiled thousands of tons of surplus energetic materials that are now obsolete and either will not or cannot be used for future applications. Reduction of this obsolete surplus is of economic and environmental necessity. However, the traditional means of open burning, open detonation or dumping are not acceptable. They yield no useable materials, contribute to pollution and increase disposal site remediation costs. Two of the major components in many of these energetic materials are cyclotetramethylene tetranitramine (HMX) and cyclotetramethylene trinitramine (RDX). These compounds have the potential to be recovered from the energetic material surplus in a demilitarization method, and used as blasting agents that are booster-sensitive but not blasting cap -sensitive, nutrient additives for fertilizer, explosive metal bonding, and used in well perforating charges. On an economic basis, demilitarization to produce purified nitroamines is preferable to mere reuse as blasting agents--gross income from the sale of the processed HMX is on the order of a magnitude greater than that from the sale of the surplus for reuse as is.
Various chemical demilitarization methods have been proposed, but involve the use of organic solvents which result in hazardous waste. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,523,517, entitled Destruction of Nitramines Employing Aqueous Dispersion of Metal Powders to Cannizzo et. al. uses metal salts, which must be separated and properly disposed of, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,098,627, entitled Solvolytic Degradation of Pyrotechnic Materials Containing Crosslinked Polymers to Tompa et. al. uses hazardous solvents such as ethylene diamine, benzene and DMSO (dimethylsulfoxide). Neither addresses the need for producing reusable products from the demilitarization.
The continuously mounting stockpile emphasizes the need for a more cost-effective method that maintains quality of product. The cost-effectiveness depends upon capital investment (equipment), supplies, waste clean-up required, and labor. With the present need for a process that has no environmental repercussions, a method to demilitarize surplus energetic materials that results in a useable resource and yet has a zero waste stream is most advantageous. The present invention addresses this need.